I was starving all the time. I lived in one room, had one futon and had a three-inch screen on the floor next to the futon. But the TV didn’t work because you needed cable and I couldn’t afford that. So I started a business. Many people think, “I have an idea” and then they want to raise $10,000,000 or something outrageous. I didn’t have any ideas. But I was good at this new thing — the Internet — and I convinced people they needed to build websites.
Was I right or wrong: Does a company need a website? Who knew back then. Nobody knew. But I was broke and hungry and wanted money to purchase some small piece of freedom, so I could do what I loved — write. I sold the few skills I had to masters who would pay me and I got to work. Which is why I was excited to read Daymond John’s book (founder of FUBU and $6 billion in sales later, a star from the ABC show “Shark Tank” along with Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, etc.) — The Power of Broke.
Daymond came on my podcast. He told me first about a time when he was no longer broke and why NOT being broke got him in trouble. “I started a record label,” he said. “We made the fanciest videos, the best ads, we got the best artists, we made an album.” “We spent $3 million on ads and videos and we sold $1 million worth of records.” “This reminded me,” he said, “about how I should always get back to that feeling of being broke. That feeling of taking care of risk, of struggling to maximize every strength. That feeling of hustle that puts you back on the street.”
He got the entrepreneurial bug when his mom taught him how to sew wool caps and he sewed 80 of them out of fabric he bought for almost nothing, and sold them for $10 each and made $800. “Did you go back the next day and sew more?” I asked him. “No,” he said and he paused, “I went back THE NEXT HOUR, and sewed more.” Within a few years his FUBU line had $350 million in sales. Within a decade or so he had sold $6 billion worth of clothes.
In his book he tells story after story of people who went from broke to wealth. “People always say you need money to make money,” he said to me. “This is wrong. If it were true, why would half the Forbes 500 of the richest people in the world start with nothing?” “In fact, if I had ZERO money when I started that record label, it probably would’ve worked. Instead, I went in there with the wrong mindset and I failed. I wasn’t hungry enough.”
We talked for an hour. He told me lots of stories from the book. I was trying to write down notes of what he said, so could I learn. No matter how many businesses I’ve started and failed at (with a success here or there), I always want to learn more.
I took out the paper this morning and here is what I can read, from what he said:
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